IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finlet/v82y2025ics1544612325008815.html

When geopolitical risks hit the supply chain: Impacts on credit default swap market

Author

Listed:
  • Huang, Yin-Siang

Abstract

This study examines the impact of cost-weighted geopolitical risk exposure in the supply chains of U.S. firms. Using a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) framework centered on the Russo-Ukrainian War, we find that treated firms experience a significant increase in credit default swap (CDS) spreads. In addition, these firms exhibit higher default probabilities and lower credit ratings, reflecting heightened financial vulnerability. These findings underscore the need for incorporating supply chain geopolitical risk metrics into credit risk assessments by policymakers and financial analysts, especially during periods of geopolitical uncertainty.

Suggested Citation

  • Huang, Yin-Siang, 2025. "When geopolitical risks hit the supply chain: Impacts on credit default swap market," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:82:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325008815
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.107622
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612325008815
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.frl.2025.107622?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dario Caldara & Matteo Iacoviello, 2022. "Measuring Geopolitical Risk," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(4), pages 1194-1225, April.
    2. Valentin Haddad & Alan Moreira & Tyler Muir, 2021. "When Selling Becomes Viral: Disruptions in Debt Markets in the COVID-19 Crisis and the Fed’s Response [Funding value adjustments]," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 34(11), pages 5309-5351.
    3. Rao, Amar & Lucey, Brian & Kumar, Satish, 2025. "Temporal dynamics of geopolitical risk: An empirical study on energy commodity interest-adjusted spreads," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    4. Zhang, Yaojie & He, Jiaxin & He, Mengxi & Li, Shaofang, 2023. "Geopolitical risk and stock market volatility: A global perspective," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    5. Naidu, Dharmendra & Ranjeeni, Kumari, 2021. "Effect of coronavirus fear on the performance of Australian stock returns: Evidence from an event study," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. John Y. Campbell & Jens Hilscher & Jan Szilagyi, 2008. "In Search of Distress Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(6), pages 2899-2939, December.
    7. Hiroyasu Inoue & Yasuyuki Todo, 2019. "Firm-level propagation of shocks through supply-chain networks," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 841-847, September.
    8. Ivanovski, Kris & Hailemariam, Abebe, 2022. "Time-varying geopolitical risk and oil prices," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 206-221.
    9. Rangan Gupta & Giray Gozgor & Huseyin Kaya & Ender Demir, 2019. "Effects of geopolitical risks on trade flows: evidence from the gravity model," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 9(4), pages 515-530, December.
    10. Liu, Chunbo & Xu, Liang & Yang, Haoyi & Zhang, Wenqiao, 2023. "Prosocial CEOs and the cost of debt: Evidence from syndicated loan contracts," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Elkamhi, Redouane & Jacobs, Kris & Pan, Xuhui, 2014. "The Cross Section of Recovery Rates and Default Probabilities Implied by Credit Default Swap Spreads," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(1), pages 193-220, February.
    12. Czech, Robert, 2021. "Credit default swaps and corporate bond trading," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    13. Pierre Collin‐Dufresne & Bruno Solnik, 2001. "On the Term Structure of Default Premia in the Swap and LIBOR Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 1095-1115, June.
    14. Johnsen, Thomas & Phillips, Wendy & Caldwell, Nigel & Lewis, Michael, 2006. "Centrality of customer and supplier interaction in innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 59(6), pages 671-678, June.
    15. Lee, Kuan-Hui & Sapriza, Horacio & Wu, Yangru, 2016. "Sovereign debt ratings and stock liquidity around the World," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 99-112.
    16. Heitor Almeida & Igor Cunha & Miguel A. Ferreira & Felipe Restrepo, 2017. "The Real Effects of Credit Ratings: The Sovereign Ceiling Channel," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(1), pages 249-290, February.
    17. Mikko Ketokivi & Joseph T. Mahoney, 2020. "Transaction Cost Economics As a Theory of Supply Chain Efficiency," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(4), pages 1011-1031, April.
    18. Borensztein, Eduardo & Cowan, Kevin & Valenzuela, Patricio, 2013. "Sovereign ceilings “lite”? The impact of sovereign ratings on corporate ratings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 4014-4024.
    19. Gök, Remzi & Bouri, Elie & Gemici, Eray, 2023. "Volatility spillovers between sovereign CDS and futures markets in various volatility states: Evidence from an emerging economy around the pandemic," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    20. Dong-Young Kim & Pengcheng Zhu & Wenli Xiao & Yen-Ting Lin, 2020. "Customer degree centrality and supplier performance: the moderating role of resource dependence," Operations Management Research, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 22-38, June.
    21. Do, Viet & Truong, Cameron & Vu, Tram, 2022. "Options listings and loan contract terms: Information versus risk-shifting," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    22. Liu, Yapan & Jin, Ming, 2023. "Does supply chain network centrality affect firm cost stickiness?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    23. Şenay Ağca & John R. Birge & Zi'ang Wang & Jing Wu, 2023. "The impact of COVID‐19 on supply chain credit risk," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(12), pages 4088-4113, December.
    24. Burcu Kapar & Steven Buigut, 2020. "Effect of Qatar diplomatic and economic isolation on Qatar stock market volatility: an event study approach," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(55), pages 6022-6030, November.
    25. Sreedhar T. Bharath & Tyler Shumway, 2008. "Forecasting Default with the Merton Distance to Default Model," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 21(3), pages 1339-1369, May.
    26. Akari, Mohamed-Ali & Ben-Abdallah, Ramzi & Breton, Michèle & Dionne, Georges, 2021. "The impact of central clearing on the market for single-name credit default swaps," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    27. Chen, Ruiyuan (Ryan) & Liu, Feiyu & Zhao, Yijia (Eddie), 2023. "Sovereign wealth funds and cost of debt: Evidence from syndicated loans," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    28. Zheng, Xiaxuan & Chen, Yueyan, 2024. "Does supply-chain-finance help to improve the efficiency of outward foreign direct investment?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    29. Dagar, Vishal & Dagher, Leila & Rao, Amar & Doytch, Nadia & Kagzi, Muneza, 2024. "Economic policy uncertainty: Global energy security with diversification," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 248-263.
    30. Ding, Wenzhi & Levine, Ross & Lin, Chen & Xie, Wensi, 2021. "Corporate immunity to the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(2), pages 802-830.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tang, Ning & Huang, Yin-Siang, 2025. "Geopolitical risk exposure and credit terms: Evidence from Global supply chains," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    2. Zhang, Le & Shang, Longwen & Huang, Min, 2026. "Commercial paper digitisation and corporate debt default risk:Evidence and mechanism from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    3. Zhou, Ning & Shi, Qi & Ye, Ju, 2025. "Industrial co-agglomeration, human capital upgrading, and supply chain efficiency," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PF).
    4. Nader Naifar, 2025. "Climate Policy Uncertainty and Sovereign Credit Risk: A Multivariate Quantile on Quantile Regression Analysis," Risks, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-22, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tang, Ning & Huang, Yin-Siang, 2025. "Geopolitical risk exposure and credit terms: Evidence from Global supply chains," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    2. Liu, Jiahao & Zhu, Bo & Hu, Xin, 2024. "Systemic risk spillovers among global energy firms: Does geopolitical risk matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    3. Aytekin Ertan & Yun Lee & Regina Wittenberg-Moerman, 2025. "Unexpected defaults: the role of information opacity," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 899-949, March.
    4. Su, Chi-Wei & Yang, Shengyao & Dumitrescu Peculea, Adelina & Ioana Biţoiu, Teodora & Qin, Meng, 2024. "Energy imports in turbulent eras: Evidence from China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(C).
    5. Nguyen, Harvey & Pham, Anh Viet & Pham, Man Duy (Marty) & Pham, Mia Hang, 2023. "Business resilience: Lessons from government responses to the global COVID-19 crisis," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5).
    6. Ye, Xiaoxia & Yu, Fan & Zhao, Ran, 2022. "Credit derivatives and corporate default prediction," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    7. Aktas, Nihat & Petmezas, Dimitris & Servaes, Henri & Karampatsas, Nikolaos, 2021. "Credit ratings and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    8. Ruggero Jappelli & Loriana Pelizzon & Alberto Plazzi, 2021. "The Core, the Periphery, and the Disaster: Corporate-Sovereign Nexus in COVID-19 Times," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 21-30, Swiss Finance Institute.
    9. António Afonso & José Alves & João Jalles & Sofia Monteiro, 2026. "The Pressure Is on: How Geopolitical Tensions Impact Institutional Fiscal and External Stability Responses," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 73(3), July.
    10. Pan, Zhaoshuai & Guo, Jiaxing, 2025. "External uncertainty and raw material price in energy transition: Implications for green development," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    11. Tang, Ning & Chang, Hao-Wen & Lin, Chih-Yung & Lu, Chien-Lin, 2024. "Public's evaluation of ESG and credit default swap: Evidence from East Asian countries," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    12. Niu, Zibo & Wang, Chenlu & Zhang, Hongwei, 2023. "Forecasting stock market volatility with various geopolitical risks categories: New evidence from machine learning models," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    13. Mollick, André Varella, 2025. "Risk, uncertainty, world business cycles, and the U.S. stock-oil relationship," Journal of Commodity Markets, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    14. Danish Ahmed & Yasir Shahab & Farid Ullah & Zhiwei Ye, 2020. "Investor sentiment and insurers’ financial stability: do sovereign ratings matter?," The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance - Issues and Practice, Palgrave Macmillan;The Geneva Association, vol. 45(2), pages 281-312, April.
    15. Marangoz, Cumali & Gerekan, Bekir & Yılmaz, Erdal & Bulut, Emre, 2025. "Disentangling geopolitical risks: A quantile approach to geopolitical risk indices’ impacts on stock markets," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    16. Zhang, Weiqian & Li, Songsong & Romanova, Valentina & Xu, Nan, 2025. "Dynamic spillovers between Chinese oil futures market and global financial markets under geopolitical risks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    17. Hasan, Iftekhar & Marra, Miriam & To, Thomas Y. & Wu, Eliza & Zhang, Gaiyan, 2023. "COVID-19 Pandemic and Global Corporate CDS Spreads," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    18. Gu, Qinen & Li, Shaofang & Tian, Sihua & Wang, Yuyouting, 2023. "Climate, geopolitical, and energy market risk interconnectedness: Evidence from a new climate risk index," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(PB).
    19. Ha, Le Thanh, 2025. "From wars to dynamic waves: Scrutinizing connectedness between geopolitical risk index, green and non-green crypto volatility by quantile spillovers," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 679(C).
    20. Satar Bakhsh & Md Shabbir Alam & Wei Zhang, 2024. "Green finance and Sustainable Development Goals: is there a role for geopolitical uncertainty?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1-30, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • G33 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Bankruptcy; Liquidation
    • F51 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Conflicts; Negotiations; Sanctions

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:82:y:2025:i:c:s1544612325008815. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/frl .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.